Fuzzy feelings by Apple
In this post, we watch the Apple Christmas ad about a lonely boss and a creative employee who are NOT friends. We also look at words that sound like their meanings.
Hello, I’m Mandeep. Welcome to my Watch and Learn English substack. My aim is to teach “real-life” English using videos and topics that are in the news.
Video of the week
Every year at Christmas, there seems to be a competition between brands to see who can make the most emotional advertisement. For me, the winner this year is Apple.
The product is an iPhone and the story follows two people at work who really don’t like each other. So, can you guess what happens? The story includes:
A man losing his trousers
A fire
A car accident
Dinner for one
A dog
Lunch for two
Watch the video twice. The first time to understand the key vocabulary, and the second time to see what you remember.
First Watch - Learning
Click the button below to watch the video with:
clear correct captions, not auto-generated
definitions for the key vocabulary
the option to slow the video down to help you catch every word
Second Watch - Testing
Now you can try “quiz” mode! As you watch, you need to choose the correct word to make the sentence. This will test how well you remember the key vocabulary from the video.
How close were you to guessing what happened?
Here’s a link to the song used. It’s by George Harrison. Is it just me, or does it turn into The Beatle’s classic ‘Hey Jude’ at the end?!
Onomatopoeia
Onomato…..what?!! Don’t worry, the word might look complicated, but all it means is a word that sounds like what it means.
Can you think of any examples from the Apple ad you just watched? Here are a few:
bells jingling
camera clicking
phone dinging
box rustling
dog barking
Why use onomatopoeia?
It can add excitement, action, and interest by allowing the reader to hear and remember your writing.
Common uses of onomatopoeia
It’s often used to give colour to marketing copy. Mazda used the slogan ‘zoom zoom’ in the 1990’s and 2000’s in their car ads and Rice Crispies, the breakfast cereal, famously make a ‘snap, crackle, pop’ when you pour the milk on top.
Here’s a quick list of how we commonly group words that are onomatopeic.
Animal sounds: hiss, bark, moo
Mechanical sounds: click, clang, buzz
Impact sounds: smack, boom, pow
Natural sounds: splash, splat, rustle
Vocal sounds: murmur, growl, whine
If you want more information on words that sound like their meanings, there’s a great video here from Maple online learning.
Say hello
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Also, please come and say hello to everybody in the comments. What do you think about the video? Why do you think WeWork failed as a company?